The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-08-14
HOUSEKEEPING LITERATURE.

have secured a measure of literary culture to
shower advice and instruction upon other
women. This disposition is a natural one,
doubt, and was, in fact, pointed out in ad-
vance by those opposed to the intellectual
progress Of the sex one of the inevitable
consequences of such training. 1t was argued
that when the female student had become
familiar with the dead languages and with
science and philosophy she would be Invested
of all feminine and domestic tastes and would
seek to disseminate among womankind ideas
subversve of all family peace and JOY. There
was feeling that Greek roots had nothing in
common with edible roots otherwise as "gar-
den truck; that an interest in the philosophy
Of the ancients was totally incompatible with
the talent required for cooking a meal,
and that fondness for even the less abstruse
studies in history and literature was de-
structive of the maternal instinct. The fears
of the alarmists have not been realized. The
danger has been found to lie in different
direction When the time comes as it inev-
itably does, that the recipient of the higher
education reaches that stage in her mental
development when she is moved to pour forth
knowledge on her fellow-cr creatures, does she
venture into the scientific field or otherwise
trespass into what has been claimed by
as his exclusive domain? Rarely does she
do anything of the sort. Woman is acknowl-
edged to have a commendable leaning to the
moral and spiritual side of life, but the cult
e. Of bar
seldom leads to anything further in this di-
rection than the utterance of melancholy
and feebly religious verse. Oddly enough
Ind contrary to all predictions, she turns her
attention to those things from which it was
feared college education would her.
With the superior powers of her trained mind
she considers domestic duties, not, indeed,
that she may perform them herself-far from
it-but that she may tell other women how
to perform them. Once, not very long
ago, column in the weekly newspaper suf
feed for all the woman writer had to say on
these subjects. Now, the fatal facility of the
pen once gained, her thoughts cannot be con-
fined in such contracted space. More room
is given her. and the helpless reader of the
daily paper is confronted with her views on
every topic, from the dressing of chicken to
the clothing of baby; discourses on Salads
and jams, and jellies stare at him from his re-
lgious journal. and even his favorite literary
magazine is not free from '.household de-
partment." Even these are not enough.
The elf-constituted regulator of affairs femi-
nine must have papers and magazines whose
only mission is to contain her opinions.
To meet her demand one periodical after
another is established. One is devoted
exclusively to the and manage
ment of infants. It might be thought
by the young and unsophisticated that all
really essential information concerning the
rearing of babies might be contained in com
paratively few pages and that serial publ
cation would speedily die for lack of new
matter. Such persons show painful ignor-
Ance of the capacity of women for endless
talk upon this fascinating subject. The
higher education enables them to embalm this
talk in print; hence the possibility of un-
limited series of books, and papers, and pam
hold journals without number. The |
term household" covers a variety of topics. |
Under one is told how to prepare a toothsome
dinner from a can of salmon, two cold pota- |
ioes and bread-crust-a use of fragments |
exceeding the miracle of the loaves and |
fishes. Readers are also told how to marry off |
their daughters, how to manage their husband |
sr their wife, how to entertain visitors charm |
ingly where there is no servant and where |
there are half dozen children. Instruction |
is given as to the best method of keeping |
house and living like Vanderbilt on next to
nothing year, with bills of fare to prove that |
1t can be DONE The menus. to be sure, are |
all for dinners, with nothing said about sup !
pers and breakfasts and no money left to pro-
vide them; but then, it is something to have |
the dinners.
Now. it may be asked, what is the objec- !
ton to all this, seeing that it is the manifest |
destiny of woman to care for house and baby |
and husbandF To this, answer is made that |
there could be no objection were it not for the |
,ne unfortunate fact, namely, that no two
women writers on domestic topics agree as to
methods. If this were not the case the young
mother might follow magazine directions and |
brain up her child to be perfect in mind and |
body; she might learn to cook and to do mar
keting on an economical basis that would per- |
nit her "old man" not only to Give high"
but to save money! condition of things |
that. as everybody knows, is synonymous |
with domestic felicity. All these things and |
more she might accomplish if there were only |
Dne course to follow, but alack. and alas, each |
yoman who writes has plan of her own for ]